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Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise
119. During the deregulation-induced 230,000 MW combined cycle plant boom of 1999 to 2003 and beyond,
developers were able to move ahead only with projects that were supported by adequate available gas
transmission and near existing localized transmission hubs. Delinking transmission responsibility from
power generation, coupled with the heavy incentivization of renewable over gas projects, has promoted the
construction of a large class of partially usable and often partially stranded generation-only assets.
120. U.S. Department of Energy, Grid Deployment Office, “Grid Deployment Office Launches Transmission Siting
and Economic Development Grants Program with $760M Inflation Reduction Act Investment,” January
13, 2023, https://www.energy.gov/gdo/articles/grid-deployment-office-launches-transmission-siting-and-
economic-development-grants (accessed March 13, 2023).
121. H.R. 6586, Natural Gas Act, Public Law No. 75-688, § 7.
122. Ibid., §§ 4 and 5.
123. Ibid., § 7(c).
124. West Virginia v. EPA, 597 U.S. ___ (2022), https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1530_n758.pdf
(accessed March 2, 2022).
125. H.R. 6586, Natural Gas Act, Public Law No. 75-688, § 3.
126. U.S. Department of Energy U.S.-based operating export LNG terminals are located in Louisiana (3); Texas
(2); Alaska (1); Georgia (1); and Maryland (1). Map, “North American LNG Export Terminals: Existing,” in U.S.
Department of Energy, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, “North American LNG Export Terminals—
Existing, Approved not Yet Built, and Proposed,” February 8, 2023, https://www.ferc.gov/natural-gas/lng
(accessed February 14, 2023).
127. Niina H. Farah, Miranda Wilson, and Carlos Anchondo, “Jordan Cove Project Dies. What It Means for FERC,
Gas,” Energywire, December 2, 2021, https://www.eenews.net/articles/jordan-cove-project-dies-what-it-
means-for-ferc-gas/ (accessed February 14, 2023).
128. Carlos Anchondo, “Biden Admin Backs Contested Alaska LNG Project,” Energywire, October 25, 2022, https://
www.eenews.net/articles/biden-admin-backs-contested-alaska-lng-project/ (accessed February 14, 2023).
129. As discussed in the section on the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, infra, these automatic
approvals should be extended to allies of the United States, not just to those with free trade agreements.
130. H.R. 11510, Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, Public Law No. 93-438, 93rd Congress, October 11, 1974, https://
www.congress.gov/93/statute/STATUTE-88/STATUTE-88-Pg1233.pdf (accessed February 27, 2023).
131. H.R. 9757, Atomic Energy Act of 1954, Public Law No. 83-703, 83rd Congress, August 30, 1954, §§ 21–28,
https://www.congress.gov/83/statute/STATUTE-68/STATUTE-68-Pg919.pdf (accessed February 27, 2023).
132. S. 512, Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act, Public Law No. 115-439, January 14, 2019, § 103,
https://www.congress.gov/115/plaws/publ439/PLAW-115publ439.pdf (accessed March 2, 2023).
133. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Congressional Budget Justification Fiscal Year 2022, June 2021,
p. xii, https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1100/v37/index.html (accessed
March 2, 2023).
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13
ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY
Mandy M. Gunasekara
MISSION STATEMENT
Creating a better environmental tomorrow with clean air, safe water, healthy soil,
and thriving communities.
A conservative U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will take a more
supportive role toward local and state efforts, building them up so that they may
lead in a meaningful fashion. This will include the sharing of federal resources and
agency expertise. Creating environmental standards from the ground up is con-
sistent with the concept of cooperative federalism embedded within many of the
agency’s authorizing statutes and will create earnest relationships among local offi-
cials and regulated stakeholders. This in turn will promote a culture of compliance.
A conservative EPA will track success by measured progress as opposed to the
current perpetual process and will convey this progress to the public in clear, con-
cise terms. True transparency will be a defining characteristic of a conservative
EPA. This will be reflected in all agency work, including the establishment of open-
source science, to build not only transparency and awareness among the public,
but also trust.
The challenge of creating a conservative EPA will be to balance justified skep-
ticism toward an agency that has long been amenable to being coopted by the Left
for political ends against the need to implement the agency’s true function: pro-
tecting public health and the environment in cooperation with states. Further, the
EPA needs to be realigned away from attempts to make it an all-powerful energy
and land use policymaker and returned to its congressionally sanctioned role as
environmental regulator.